Valentine's present to my readers
by baywinger
Summary: MickBeth. No, really.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. No copywrite infringement intended.

* * *

Tears, bitter salt under my lips, hers and mine.

I broke away from the kiss, breath ragged from more than the desperation I felt just moments ago. Was it only months ago I begged her, "Not like this?" Was _this_ any better? My pants and my heart felt too tight, and she was sobbing.

"Beth?" My voice cracked, not unlike the walls I'd carefully built around my soul for the last fifty years. I may have been patching them for the last twenty-two, but it was obviously a bad job, and now the crumbled chunks were a mess of reddened eyes and blotchy cheeks in my arms.

"Don't stop." Husky, choked. Choking me as the sound reverberated through the deepest and most base parts of my body. If ever I needed proof that undead wasn't dead...

"I won't, I promise," _you I can't, not now, may God or Satan help me. Who's the patron saint of the damned?_ "But I need to slow down a little, please, Beth."

She clung tighter to my neck, so I straightened, perforce lifting her from her feet and hurried to the couch. It wasn't that she was heavy, but that I was weak. I needed to sit down. Badly.

"Beth..."

Her hand covered my lips and her head shook, blonde silk falling over one eye, "Don't tell me. Show me."

Show her. Fine. How in hell was I going to do that? I really hadn't been with a human woman that survived the experience since I was turned. I wanted nothing more than to take Beth and make love to her, but I honestly didn't know how! Josef's voice in my ear, "Vampires can have sex with humans, Mick." Too bad the asshole hadn't bothered to let me in on the secret handshake that would keep me from killing her. I settled on nodding a little under her fingers. She gave me a watery smile and moved her hand from my face. Where she put that hand was a little distracting and I bit back a moan, "Beth."

"Shh."

I had to. Her warmth draped across me, pressed me against the back of the couch. Her mouth searched mine, finding the sharp edges of my arousal with her tongue. I couldn't suppress the shudders as she pricked her lips on my fangs and her blood sweetened the kiss. Her hands busied themselves with my belt, and I grabbed her elbows as gently as I could, "Please, slow down Beth. I can't..."

"You can't what? You were the one that said that this would work. _You_ begged _me!_" Those eyes. Those damned sky blue eyes, Coraline would have been deadly if she had been born with Beth's eyes. Bright as a spring morning, dark as an evening storm.

The wind was rising, "I did, I want to. But I haven't, I told you that. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't." The sun peeked from behind the clouds.

"I honestly can't say I won't, Beth. I sure as hell don't want to, but..."

"I trust you." She laid her head on my chest. I couldn't imagine what she must have felt at the silence there, but she stayed. I released her arms and stroked her hair.

Her warmth radiated into me, her heart beat against mine. Life curled itself against me, "I'm going to bite you."

Not even a flinch, "I know."

How could I fight this? "Beth."

"If you could stop when you were dying, you can stop now. Shut up."

I did.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: All publically recognizable characters are the property of their respective owners, no copywrite infringement intended.

A/N: So I'm not sure about where this went, but since I get so bloody annoyed with Beth, I figured it was time.

* * *

I lifted my head from his chest and looked into his eyes. They hadn't gone blue yet, so it was like watching the ocean crash against me. Emotions swirled in those depths; I could see desire (like I couldn't feel that one, draped across his entire body), but there were so many others. Things I couldn't put a name to, most of them. But the one I could made me drop my head and wish a thousand times over that I'd been gentler with him.

Fear.

God, how I wished I could take back all those awful words I'd said after...well. How, if I had it to do over again, I would have returned that joyful smile and took his hand that night in New York. So many times I'd hurt him, not even realizing it. _You never told me! I was so damn busy trying to figure it all out, I never thought to ask you how you felt._

His hands moved from my hair, lower, kneading the muscles of my back. Somehow the innocence in the action was completely subverted; I don't know if it was the slow rhythm of his fingers or the care he took in moderating his strength, but as my body responded to the melody his hands were playing on my spine, any hope I might have had to continue ruing my mistakes went the way of coherent thought.

His lips brushed the top of my head, and his hands moved to my hips. The cool of his touch brought heat wherever he passed. I glanced up again, he smiled, and I nearly drowned in the beauty of the tossing waves. He crushed me to him, but no harder than I clung. His mouth sought mine as I let go long enough to pull his shirt from the waist of his jeans.

Soon we both were feverish, and I knew it was my blood warming him as his touch warmed me. He buried himself in me, took me into him and gave me himself in exchange. As I lay panting against him, he whispered over and over:

"I love you, I'm sorry, I never wanted to hurt you, Beth, I..."

"I thought I told you to shut up. You were doing so well." I looked up and smiled at his pitiful expression, the frost of his eyes reminding me of the first time he let me see his vulnerability.

"It's give and take, Mick. You gave me more than you took, you always have." I rested my head against his arm, and he pulled me close.

"But..."

"No, Mick. It's my turn to apologize." I couldn't meet his eyes; I rubbed little circles on the smooth skin of his belly.

"I've hurt you. Over and over again. I know that now." _You weren't the only one, but the other is out of reach. Maybe somehow this will reach him, too._ "I never stopped to think." _About anyone or anything other than myself, my need for answers, my traumas, me._ "You keep saying you are a monster, but the only place I see one is when I look in a mirror."

"No..." His hand squeezed my shoulders and his chest stopped moving under my cheek.

I interrupted him, again, "Yes. And I beg you to forgive me. Not to say it isn't true, because it is."

Silence and stillness. I waited, cringing a little, the nakedness of my body nothing compared to what I'd just bared and what was apparently not to be accepted.

"Beth." I responded to the velvet rumble before I realized it, then I was tumbling, spinning, unable to breathe as I was pounded by his gaze. He rubbed at a trickle of wetness tracking down his face, and the barest hint of a crooked smile warmed me all over again. He pulled me to him, and gently kissed my forehead, eyes, and the tip of my nose before he whispered, lips moving against my temple, "I forgive you."

* * *

The sky and the ocean met, folding against each other, finally finding the strength to heal by accepting the other's strength to forgive.


End file.
